The use of models and simulators in food industry remains limited, despite its interest to predict complex situations, as shown by an abundant scientific literature . Although carried out in many establishments and universities, teaching about food modelling faces theoretical hurdles (mathematical formalism ...) who tend to discourage students, who are the future engineers and managers of food industries, but may have uncertain basis in physics, for instance. A generic response through a “learning by doing” approach is possible to teach these modelling approaches. Actually, digital resources offer an opportunity to address these issues . In the MESTRAL (Modelling and simulation for food processes) project, we have built such resources for teaching through knowledge representation and transfer tools, in particular electronic knowledge books (eK-Book). The eK-Book is a Web based tool, where knowledge is represented with concept maps, process and influence graphs, knowledge sheets, and their relationships stated as hypertext links. The effectiveness of knowledge transfer via these tools has already been validated . MESTRAL now encompasses 15 modules covering about 150h, each one presenting a couple (food, process) – from “heat exchanger for starch suspensions” to “cheese ripening” – in an eK-Book. Each module contains model-based simulators, used for virtual practice, and also includes exercises and tests for applying and assessing the knowledge acquired. MESTRAL has already been successfully tested for various classes, either for self-training or hybrid learning. Current prospects include its integration as a MOOC (Massive Open Online Courses). This work was supported by AgreenCamp project (ANR-15-IDFN-0001-01).
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